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    N-Gage

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    The N-Gage (later re-released as N-Gage QD) was a failed gaming platform developed by phone manufacturer Nokia. Games in MMC-Card format were sold for the platform, and towards the end, games were available for download to your own MMC.

    Short summary describing this platform.

    N-Gage last edited by Obsurveyor on 10/18/18 10:29AM View full history

    Overview

    The N-Gage was a cellphone and handheld gaming platform, released by Nokia in 2003. It was supposed to be a competitor to Nintendo's Gameboy Advance, but was unsuccessful because of its clumsy design. Today the N-Gage brand is used for Nokia's mobile gaming service, available for the company's N-Series phones which is itself now obsolete. It had some big design flaws, that made the gaming and calling aspects of the phone clumsy.

    Criticisms:

    Sidetalkin'
    Sidetalkin'
    The original N-Gage
    The original N-Gage
    • The battery had to be removed to switch games.
    • The speaker and microphone was on the side of the phone. To make calls you had to hold the phone up to your head like a taco. This led to the internet meme of people "sidetalking".
    • The screen orientation was unusual for a gaming system (vertical instead of horizontal).

    N-Gage QD

    The N-Gage QD was released six months after the original N-Gage, and improved many of the flaws found in the previous device. QD stands for "Quaque Die", which is Latin for "Every Day"

    Differences:

    N-Gage QD
    N-Gage QD
    • New revamped look.
    • Games could be switched without removing the battery.
    • The earpiece was moved to the front of the device.
    • No support for MP3 playback.

    White screen of death

    The N gage QD also had a memory problem known as the white screen of death, the white screen of death became a serious problem with many users as it was easy to get the problem. The problem was that if the internal memory on the phone (3 MB) had been fully used up, then the phone would start using memory from the phones Ram. This meant that the phone would no longer have enough memory to start up the phone or even open the main menu to delete the files taking up the memory. Once this problem occurs if you turn off the N gage then it will no longer work, when turned back on the N gage would show a white screen and stay that way until the phone was switched off, now known as the white screen of death. Another problem with this was that there was and still isn't anyway to fix the N gage after getting the white screen of death, the only known way of fixing is for it to be sent to an official Nokia store.

    N-Gage Arena

    Tiger Woods fully supported online
    Tiger Woods fully supported online

    The N-Gage also fully supported online play with some games, N-Gage arena allowed players to play against other people wherever they were, even with no wi-fi connectivity at all. However N-Gage Arena had problems, such as having to register with your network provider, which was a problem as some networks did not allow N gage Arena despite working on the N-Gage console. Arena also suffered from lag problems and slow down and was sadly never used by many players, meaning that the people who did play on N-Gage Arena could rarely find another player to play with, however Nokia still even today supports N-Gage Arena in some countries (such as UK) and still works just as well as it originally did.

    N-Gage Arena was also used in some games as a global high score service. Some games, such as Atari Masterpieces Vol. 1 used this service so players could compare their scores with people from all over the world.

    N-Gage today

    The New N-Gage service
    The New N-Gage service

    In 2008 Nokia released a mobile gaming service, under the N-Gage brand. The company dropped the idea of combining cellphones with handheld gaming devices, and chose to make N-gage a part of their Ovi internet services instead. This service is only available on certain Nokia smartphones running the company's S60 software platform, including several Nseries, Eseries and XpressMusic phones. The revamped N-gage service resembles Microsoft's Xbox Live, with additions like N-Gage points, and gamer profiles.

    With the N-Gage platform games are downloaded to the phone, and doesn't support the game cartridges the old N-gage system used. That means there is no backwards compatibility whatsoever. Several first generation N-gage games were ported over to the new platform. It was announced in October 2009 that the service would be shut down by the end of 2010.

    Nokia n85

    Nokia's most recent phone with a capacity comparing to the Android.

    n85 Specs:

    Dimensions

    • Form: Two-way slider
    • Volume: 76 cc
    • Weight: 128 g
    • Dimensions: 103 × 50 × 16.0 mm

    Two-way slider with spring assistance mechanism

    Memory

    • microSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 32 GB (After firmware update)
    • 128 MB internal dynamic memory
    • 78 MB internal NAND flash memory

    Data Network

    • HSDPA, maximum speed 3.6 Mbps (DL)
    • WCDMA 900/1900/2100, maximum speed PS 384/384 kbps (UL/DL)
    • EDGE class B, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177.6 kbps (DL/UL)
    • GPRS class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 107/64.2 kbps (DL/UL)
    • HSCSD, maximum speed 43.2 kbit/s
    • CSD
    • WLAN 802.11b, 802.11g
      • WLAN Security: WPA2-Enterprise, WPA2-Personal, WPA-Enterprise, WPA-Personal, WEP
      • WLAN Quality of Service: WMM, U-APSD
      • WLAN wizard
    • TCP/IP support
    • Capability to serve as data modem

    Display and User Interface

    • Size: 2.6"
    • Resolution: 320 × 240 pixels (QVGA)
    • Up to 16.7 million colours
    • Active Matrix OLED technology

    Power Management

    • BL-5K 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
    • ACP-12U 5.7V 800mA AC adapter
    • Talk time (maximum):
      • GSM 6.9 h
      • WCDMA 4.5 h
      • VoIP 6 h
    • Standby time (maximum):
      • GSM 363 h
      • WCDMA 363 h
      • WLAN 172 h
    • Browsing time with packet data (maximum): 5 h 42 min
    • Video playback time (maximum): 7 h
    • Video recording time (maximum): 2 h 54 min
    • Video call time (maximum): 2 h 42 min
    • Gaming time (maximum): 7 h

    Operating Frequency

    • Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900
    • WCDMA 2100/1900/850 (in the Americas) and 2100/1900/900 (everywhere else)
    • Automatic switching between WCDMA/GSM bands
    • Flight mode

    Connectivity

    • Bluetooth version 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate.
    • Bluetooth profiles:
      • Dial Up Networking Profile (Gateway)
      • Object Push Profile (Server and Client)
      • File Transfer Profile (Server)
      • Hands Free Profile (Audio Gateway)
      • Headset Profile (Audio Gateway)
      • Basic Imaging Profile (Image Push Responder and Initiator)
      • Remote SIM Access Profile (Server)
      • Device Identification Profile
      • Phone Book Access Profile (Server)
      • Stereo Audio Streaming:
      • Generic Audio/Video Distribution Profile
      • Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (A/V Remote Control Target)
      • Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (Audio Source)
    • Add-on solutions enable integration into enterprise private branch exchange (PBX) infrastructure
    • DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certification
    • UPnP support
    • MTP (Mobile Transfer Protocol) support
    • TV out (PAL) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, in box inclusion may vary based on sales package configuration)
    • Nokia XpressPrint
    • Support for local and remote SyncML synchronization
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